Paywalls making a comeback? The Atlantic thinks so

After taking its paywall down 10 years ago, The Atlantic is bringing it back. Next month, TheAtlantic.com will launch a metered paywall allowing readers to access 10 articles for free each month.

“More than a million people come to our site 10 times or more every month. What we’re doing now is we’re saying to that group: ‘Help us continue to expand our journalism,’” Bob Cohn, president of The Atlantic, told The Wall Street Journal.

In 2008, the idea was to pull down the paywall to grow The Atlantic’s digital audience and advertising revenue. Back then, the site had 2 million monthly visitors. This year, it averaged nearly 20 million, representing more than a 20% increase from 2016.

In 2018, the move to put the paywall back is a response to consumers who are increasingly willing to pay for digital content, like Netflix and Spotify, Cohn said.